Lot 270: Enomoto Chikatoshi (1898-1973)

Court lady with hat under snow-laden plum
Signed and sealed Chikatoshi
Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold on silk
49 3/4 x 14 1/8in. (126.4 x 35.8cm.)

Enomoto Chikatoshi was born in Tokyo and began studying with the Nihonga painter Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1973) in 1916 at the age of 18. He graduated from the Tokyo Art School in 1921, and one year later had his first painting accepted by the annual Teiten exhibition. Thereafter his paintings were continuously shown in the juried Teiten, Shin-Bunten and Nitten exhibitions. By the late 1920s his preferred subject matter was the fashionable modern girl, whether playing billiards or golf or adjusting the lens of a 16-millimeter movie camera. His painting Billiards, shown at the 9th Teiten (1928), was purchased by a member of the imperial family. In 1939 he was a founding member of the Seiginkai (Blue Collar Society) along with Ito Shinsui and Yamakawa Shuho.

Chikatoshi's work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.